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User: Repossessed

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Comments · 1,055

  1. Re:Cox has been doing this for at least 3 years on Quebec ISP To Terminate Subscribers Over Copyright · · Score: 1

    Kind of a dumb question, *everything* thats eligible for copyright has it in the US, including open source/creative commons work.

  2. Number of trees saved on Why Kindle 2's Screen Took 12 Years and $150 Million · · Score: 1

    Zero. Logging occurs at the maximum possible rate allowed. And those trees are useful for a lot more than just paper. The price drop from a lack of wood pulp required for paper would allow other things to be made o wood more cheaply, thus bringing them more sales.

  3. Re:Software patents on Has Microsoft's Patent War Against Linux Begun? · · Score: 1

    I doubt a withdrawal will be necessary. Microsoft will take the patent troll route, and settle for less than the cost to fight the lawsuit.

    That TomTom refuses to even negotiate suggests they might be ready to fight though, or just expect IBM to bail them out.

    Should be a fun fight to watch though.

  4. Re:Summary on US Antitrust Judge Examining Windows 7 Documents · · Score: 2, Interesting

    They secured the big OEMs the right to sell more than just windows, eventually paving the way for netbooks.

  5. Re:How long was I in there? on Functional Neurons Created From Adult Somatic Cells · · Score: 2, Informative

    The existing lines that Bush approved were all contaminated, and thus mostly useless.

    That said, this article is about *adult* stem cell research, which Bush never blocked.

  6. Re:A column of democracy...FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION! on Supreme Court of India Comes Down On Bloggers · · Score: 1

    Given that this is Shiv Sena that we're discussing, about the only things you could say about them that *aren't* true are the things nobody would believe. Like "they are decent human beings". Or "They don't actually eat children"

    Seriously though, SS is full of violent fundamentalists on par with any US based hate group, suing people for using Orkut is better than their usual tactics with Orkut users.

  7. Re:What the hell is "AP"? on Court Upholds AP "Quasi-Property" Rights On Hot News · · Score: 1

    Do I need to explain what IBM stands for too?

  8. Re:Alternative: Liberated (or "pirated") XP on 1 of 3 Dell Inspiron Mini Netbooks Sold With Linux · · Score: 1

    There is one major problem with this idea...

    How many computer users actually have the technical expertise to install XP? 1%? 2%? Not many at any rate.

  9. Re:That's not okay. on EU Says MS Must Offer Other Browsers; Now What? · · Score: 1

    Um, you can, its in add/remove windows components. This does leave an installer so you can undo it, but it is technically uninstalled.

  10. Re:vaccine even possible? on Steps Toward a Universal Flu Vaccine · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Evolution is not really the mechanism for developing antibodies. It's also normal for a person to be immune or resistant to viruses they've had , but successfully fought off. In fact, vaccines rely on human antibody production to be effective. Even if we can develop a antibody in the lab that fights all influenza strains, there's no guarantee that the human body can be coaxed into producing that antibody on its own.

    The problems with making a universal vaccine are *because* of evolution's weakness, not because if evolution can't do it we can't.

  11. Re:Mozilla Foundation's Choice on EU Says MS Must Offer Other Browsers; Now What? · · Score: 1

    They can say anything they want, Microsoft will rename it it to Microsoft Sandrat for distribution with windows, along with the new Microsoft Chrome (ensuring minimum effort on their part since neither Sandrat nor chrome will require any contractual obligations). They will then put an option in when you install Vista for which you want to use, 99% of users will never see this option, because the OEMs will select IE for them to reduce support calls.

  12. Re:Why now? on Wisconsin Passes Digital Download Tax · · Score: 1

    We buy a lot more shit from out of state these days. Sooner or later, they'll have to neither change the way out of state sales tax works, or give up on sales tax altogether.

  13. Re:And the scientists goes mooo! on Freeing and Forgetting Data With Science Commons · · Score: 1

    Or the scientists just stop writing in third person passive, and start writing in a manner people outside of the scientific community are used to. Though I think the summary refers more to trying to extract data you do understand from complicated papers that talk a lot about things you neither understand nor care about.

  14. Re:"I didn't read it" on Pirate Bay Day 5 — Prosecution Tries To Sneak In Evidence · · Score: 2, Informative

    I know jack shit about Swedish law, but the RIAA presented a similar argument in its cases against filesharing sites in the US. SCOTUS eventually ruled that the sites could be held liable only if they actually encouraged piracy, not if they simply knew about it.

    If Sweden's system works close to the same way ours does, even that would be hard to convince a judge of, since criminal charges are a lot harder to uphold than civil.

  15. Re:"I didn't read it" on Pirate Bay Day 5 — Prosecution Tries To Sneak In Evidence · · Score: 1

    Even better:

    "The computer was buggy and all i saw was a row of boxes, you really need to do more testing under WINE." (Yes this really happens).

  16. Re:If you have a computer, your guilty. on Why Doesn't the IWF Notify Those Whom They Block? · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    You seem to be laboring under the impression that the law is meant to be a good thing. The law is meant to fuck as many people over as possible, traditionally this is so if somebody becomes a nuisance they can be harassed investigated and locked away. (See Timothy Leary, who got 30 years for possession of weed after he tried to run for governor).

    More recently, the law has gone back to its old standby, arrest as many people as possible for the sake of greed. Both so that prison companies can charge the state to house the prisoners, and so that they can sell the prisoners forced labor to manufacturers.

  17. Re:So long cables running from space to earth? on Space Based Solar Power Within a Decade? · · Score: 1

    All they need are a couple of solar panels and a bunch of extension cords. I don't know about the solar panels, but home depot has 50ft extension cords that look pretty sturdy for only $20, and for the 20,000 of them or so that you would need I'm sure they could work in a discount.

    You forgot to account for the duct tap to hold it all together with.

  18. Re:Obama, determined to destroy any company. on Obama Anti-Trust Chief on Google the Monopoly Threat · · Score: 1

    No, but they are under obligation not to create a monopoly using Windows or Office as leverage. Pushing new media formats is their attempt to do exactly that. Though as best I can tell, they're failing miserably at establishing new monopolies, and I don't think attempted abuse of monopoly counts.

  19. Re:TrueCrypt or Wait for On Drive Upgrades on How To, When You Have To Encrypt Absolutely Everything? · · Score: 1

    Unlikely to bu useful. memory parity errors in windows are usually video ram (or video drivers).

    And no, he isn't using shared memory for his video card, the 9400 didn't have an on-board video option.

  20. Re:For fucks sakes. on UK Conservatives Slammed Over Open Source Stance · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Get involved in the party closer to your heart and change things

    That's great and all but lets take a look at US, and to a large extent (gleaned from to many UK political blogs) UK, politics.

    To start with, most seats are going anywhere, there are no term limits for most offices, and party line voting means that elections are basically shams for many positions. There is only one national level office available in my state that is available to the party whose rhetoric (if not actions) mostly matches my ideals. It has been held by the same man for 8 years, until he actually loses the seat, I couldn't even run. And he's already selected his cronies, so I can't latch on to him.

    Thats the *good* part of the political scene, on the far end one of our senators has been serving for 38 years, having one reelection a 7th time in a row, partly on the basis that having a senior senator means we get a bigger slice of the pie when the federal tax money is divided up, and partly on the basis that he is the correct party for the state.

    Locally, the scene is even worse, since district lines are redrawn every year in order to ensure that as many incumbents as possible stay in office (this is a true non partisan effort, both parties participate in undermining democracy whenever they can). Ultimately, the only time its possible to move people out of office is when the die or retire, in which case a carefully selected patsy usually runs in their place, almost always this person will have gone to Yale, Harvard, or maybe Cambridge, where they studied brown nosing and selling out. Every now and then someone like Obama shakes things up, in which case they *still* go after the same cronies as the old regime, only now if you went to the University of Chicago, you have a shot as well.

    All of this of course ignores that my sexuality and religion make me not just unelectable, but also ensure the political suicide of any politician known to associate with me.

    TL; DR version: There is nobody for me to attach myself to, and no way for me to seriously run for office.

  21. Re:Annoying but expected on Why Your Pop-Up Blocker Doesn't Work Anymore · · Score: 1

    I may have to try this, I generally resisted the adblock trend (though the plugin is nice for blocking other things), but the perpetual crashes that started after flash 10 came out, and advertisers failed to do any bugfixing, finally forced my hand. (Not to mention flash adds that would eat the whole processor, though kernel level fixes managed to (mostly) keep them from doing that).

  22. Re:Nonsense on Why Windows Must (and Will) Go Open Source · · Score: 1

    Except Microsoft already started stage 1, thew windows source code is available to a select client list, governments and very large enterprises. They still aren't allowed to change the source, so its of limited use, though I imagine it make s the military feel better that they've verified there's no backdoors or the like.

  23. Re:Why? on WarCloning, the New WarDriving? · · Score: 1

    Um, they do random license checkpoints in this state all the time, its how they get around the 'no drunk driver checkpoint' rulings. Something about if they take a classified ad out people who want to avoid it can. (Because of course, everyone reads the classified section of the dead tree newspaper).

    Of course, the courts here are also convinced that visiting a grocery store is reasonable suspicion of drunk driving.

  24. Re:Dave is a great guy on NFL's IT Chief Gears Up For His 25th Super Bowl · · Score: 1

    The books might show that they lose money, but if you look at what it costs to be allowed to buy a ticket at some schools, this is far from the truth. The minimum 'donation' for my father's football tickets comes to about 300 a game. These are 30 dollar tickets. (Which he scalped for 600 a piece _).

    On the other hand, this is a very successful athletic program, so its possible your claim that most (but not all) schools lose money is true.

  25. Re:Re-licensing on Microsoft Releases Source Code For Web Sandbox · · Score: 1

    GPLv3 is compatible with Apache, via a couple optional license terms, so yes, you should be able to fork a GPL version if you want to make sure your changes stay open source.